\n\t\t\t\t\t\tUniversal Orlando Resort is moving quickly on the construction of the Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift roller coaster and clearing space for a new themed land at Islands of Adventure. Recent views from Chopper 2 show significant progress, with dirt replaced by a track and crews installing the 170-foot vertical “spike” that will send riders nearly 17 stories into the air over the outskirts of Universal CityWalk. “We’re still in kind of the beginning stages of vertical construction with all the tracking columns. They just started that about a month ago. I mean, a month ago there was literally nothing behind me right now, and all of a sudden everything is sprouting up like weeds,” Daniel Leavelle from Midway Mayhem said Thursday while visiting Universal Studios Florida. Leavelle, who has worked on coasters for other parks in Central Florida and beyond, said crews are likely moving this fast ahead of the massive crowds at Halloween Horror Nights, which begins Aug. 28. “In previous years, you’ve had guest walkways to go underneath, say, where Rip Ride Rocket was, in order to access the sound stages. Well, you’re going to have to do that again this year. So, a lot of the tracking columns that you see behind me over by Hard Rock has to be in place before August,” Leavelle said. Crews also have to navigate the scorching heat. Central Florida was under a heat advisory Thursday with feels-like temperatures in the triple digits.Leavelle said weather conditions are far from ideal for construction crews.”They’re kind of spreading the load of work, but because it is so hot in Central Florida, they’re not putting up any track and supports during the daytime. It’s, it’s too hot,” he said.When temperatures feel like triple digits, Leavelle explained the sun is not the only concern for workers.”Track temperatures are getting over 140 degrees. You don’t have to deal with guests as well, so all the work is right now happening from about 10 p.m. at night until about 7 a.m. in the morning,” he said.While crews push through the heat to work on the high-octane coaster, they are also clearing space at “The Lost Continent” land at Islands of Adventure. The trident outside Poseidon’s Fury has been removed to make way for a new themed land.”More gift shops have closed, restaurants are starting to close, and the whole area is getting a massive redo. So, I mean, literally, they’re starting with a blank slate, essentially,” Leavelle said.”Universal knows what they’re doing by spreading out different projects in their Studios park and their Islands of Adventure Park, as well as all the stuff going on at Epic. So, it’s a very busy time here at the Universal Orlando Resort and Orlando in general, because Walt Disney World is doing crazy stuff, too.”Universal Orlando says Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift will open sometime next year, and to make way for the ride, Fast & Furious – Supercharged will permanently close next year.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Universal Orlando Resort is moving quickly on the construction of the Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift roller coaster and clearing space for a new themed land at Islands of Adventure. <\/p>\n
Recent views from Chopper 2 show significant progress, with dirt replaced by a track and crews installing the 170-foot vertical “spike” that will send riders nearly 17 stories into the air over the outskirts of Universal CityWalk. <\/p>\n
“We’re still in kind of the beginning stages of vertical construction with all the tracking columns. They just started that about a month ago. I mean, a month ago there was literally nothing behind me right now, and all of a sudden everything is sprouting up like weeds,” Daniel Leavelle from Midway Mayhem said Thursday while visiting Universal Studios Florida. <\/p>\n
Leavelle, who has worked on coasters for other parks in Central Florida and beyond, said crews are likely moving this fast ahead of the massive crowds at Halloween Horror Nights, which begins Aug. 28. <\/p>\n
“In previous years, you’ve had guest walkways to go underneath, say, where Rip Ride Rocket was, in order to access the sound stages. Well, you’re going to have to do that again this year. So, a lot of the tracking columns that you see behind me over by Hard Rock has to be in place before August,” Leavelle said. <\/p>\n
Crews also have to navigate the scorching heat. Central Florida was under a heat advisory Thursday with feels-like temperatures in the triple digits.<\/p>\n
Leavelle said weather conditions are far from ideal for construction crews.<\/p>\n
“They’re kind of spreading the load of work, but because it is so hot in Central Florida, they’re not putting up any track and supports during the daytime. It’s, it’s too hot,” he said.<\/p>\n
When temperatures feel like triple digits, Leavelle explained the sun is not the only concern for workers.<\/p>\n
“Track temperatures are getting over 140 degrees. You don’t have to deal with guests as well, so all the work is right now happening from about 10 p.m. at night until about 7 a.m. in the morning,” he said.<\/p>\n
While crews push through the heat to work on the high-octane coaster, they are also clearing space at “The Lost Continent” land at Islands of Adventure. The trident outside Poseidon’s Fury has been removed to make way for a new themed land.<\/p>\n
“More gift shops have closed, restaurants are starting to close, and the whole area is getting a massive redo. So, I mean, literally, they’re starting with a blank slate, essentially,” Leavelle said.<\/p>\n
“Universal knows what they’re doing by spreading out different projects in their Studios park and their Islands of Adventure Park, as well as all the stuff going on at Epic. So, it’s a very busy time here at the Universal Orlando Resort and Orlando in general, because Walt Disney World is doing crazy stuff, too.”<\/p>\n
Universal Orlando says Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift will open sometime next year, and to make way for the ride, Fast & Furious – Supercharged will permanently close next year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Universal Orlando Resort is moving quickly on the construction of the Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift roller coaster…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-312285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}